Back to Before
by ThatStrangeWriter
Summary: Clementine & co. go hunting and (don't ask how) fall into a world of walkers. Now they need to adjust to society and make it back to Ericson and their friends. But do they even want to? (Clouis because i said so) Okay but like imagine Clem being all badass in highschool and everyone being like :0 and shes like "wat, did i do something weird" sksks just read t


Author's Note: I was asked to make this by a friend so here it is. This won't get a lot of reads but I made it for fun:)

This is basically an AU where Clem co. (*snickers*) fall into an alternative universe without walkers. This sounds boring but stick with me. Bye :)

(i also have no idea why the text is so big—sorry.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Clementine woke with a jolt. Another nightmare. She'd been having those a lot lately. More than usual. She hadn't seen Lee in her dreams in a while. Lately, it was just her getting bit. Over and over again. She'd come to expect it every time her head hit the pillow. But she could never fully prepare herself.

Dawn streamed in from the window. The sun shone softly on the hardwood floor. Dawn was always her favorite time of day. When the cold and unforgiving fog most people called night retreated, the sun peaked out if the trees. The dewy grass let out a smell of happiness into the air as it brushed across her ankle. The rising sun would shine on everyone. No matter what you did yesterday. Today was new and you would try again. For a second, everything would go away. Leaving only the sun reflecting on the dew drops and warming her skin. It was beautiful—and overwhelming. The world waking up. Too much and too little all at once.

Then people would wake up, and the magic would be over. She would remember she was absolutely useless and had a stump. She would remember almost everyone she cared about was dead and the world was overrun by their rotting carcasses.

But for now, the sun shone. The sky was a haze of colors she rarely got to see. Pink, red, orange, yellow, and some other colors mixed in between.

Smiling, Clem sat up. She ignored the jolts of pain coming from her (nonexistent) leg. She looked around for AJ only to find his bed was empty. Her heart jolted for a second before she realized that he was probably on patrol. Or out coloring with Tenn somewh—no. No, he wasn't doing that. He couldn't. Not anymore.

She reached for her crutches against the wall, and pushed herself up, ignoring her muscles screaming in pain. Clementine let out a shuddering breath and stood still for a moment, catching her breath and looking around the room. The Flytrap had caught some sort of bug overnight, AJ's sheets were all messed up, the flowers were beginning to droop, and the animal skulls stared into the depths of nothingness.

Clem spotted her boot throw about inside the closet. Struggling, she lifted herself toward it when the door burst open.

"Rise and Shine, princess!"

Louis bounded in the room, bringing airy confidence into the stuffy room. He stopped short once he spotted her—fully awake—standing there, leaning on her crutches, giving him a funny look.

"I guess you're awake now," he pouted, shoving his hands into the pockets of his iconic trench coat.

Clementine laughed and rolled her eyes.

She gave Louis an pained and apologetic smile and limped over to struggle her boot on.

It broke Louis's heart to see her like this. Giving him a pained smiled every time she needed any help. Thinking she was useless. She had no idea how many people she helped. How many people loved her. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. He should've been there. To help her. But he wasn't, and now her chances of survival lowered. He knew she could take care of herself, but her new injury would slow her down. A lot. He hated when she gave him this look, whenever she needed help with the little things. The look of 'I'm sorry, I'm a bit of a burden.' . It wasn't often that she asked for or accepted help. They were all getting used to it. Trying to find things for her to do. But she restless. He tried to help her, and sometimes—it was enough. But the little things she would miss out on...he could only try to make her feel better. But she was a good sport about it. Always smiling, insisting to go hunting, helping out in whatever way she could. She had no idea how she helped and what she meant to everyone. She still felt useless.

She still felt absolutely and utterly useless and there wasn't a damn thing Louis could do about it.

"Hello? Earth to Louis?" Clementine interrupted his thoughts by waving a hand in front of his face, motioning for the crutches.

He always looked sort of adorable when he was distracted. But there was a sad tint to his face and she couldn't really figure out why. Before she could think more of it, AJ ran in, almost busting down the door.

"Clem!" He cried, jumping into her arms.

Clem was surprised, but she was thrown off balance anyways and fell into Louis's arms.

"You really weren't lying when you said you fell for me." He winked.

Clementine rolled her eyes, smiling. It was a cheesy joke. But it was his cheesy joke.

"Mitch says we all get to go on patrol with Violet." AJ smiled.

"That's great goofball." Clementine nodded, picking herself back up.

AJ gave a nod and scampered out of the room. Clem gave Louis a sheepish smile and slowly made her way into the hallway.

(Like...10 minutes later because I don't want to write a play-by-play of Clementine walking down the hall and eating her breakfast. I'm too lazy to write that and YOU'RE probably too lazy to read that.) ANYWAYS

~~~

"You guys ready to head out?" Violet asked, coming up to them.

"Define the definition of 'ready'," said Louis, "Am I mentally prepared to go on a hunting trip? No, I'm still tired and would rather be somewhere else. Physically, however..." he flexed his arm, "Yeah, I think I'm ready."

"Shut the fuck up." Violet bumped past him and jogged towards the gate.

Clementine rolled her eyes playfully.

"C'mon AJ, we're heading out! Get your gun!"

"Coming!" AJ ran over, gun in hand, a determined look on his face. It was actually sort of cute. Louis smiled and tugged AJ along by the arm.

Clementine smiled and took in the sights. The rising sun, her friends, AJ, her boyfriend if you want to call him that. It felt too good to be true. But it was.

She had lost a lot to get here, but it was worth it nonetheless. Who needs a left leg?

You do. Everyone does. It helps them survive. They're useless without it.

No. She wasn't going to start having these thoughts now. She had come too far for this.

Louis must of seen the small look of dread that descended on her face whenever she got like this because he caught out for her to join him.

Clementine sighed.

"Coming."

(Timeskip because walking through the woods isn't a very fun scene to write. I don't need to describe what crunching leaves sound like, right?)

~~~

"So...guys.." Vi stammered.

The silence had become suffocating. The dawn was far away and they sun was bearing down on their backs. AJ played with his gun quietly, Louis looked down at the ground, Clementine kept constantly checking the area, and Violet wouldn't stop twiddling with her thumbs. She felt sort of bad when she did it. That was sort of Tenn's thing. She knew Louis couldn't have saved him but...

"Wanna play a game?" Louis interrupted the thick silence.

Violet and Clem groaned, secretly thankful for the diversion. AJ gave Louis a small smile.

"Which one?" He asked.

"How about Truth or Dare?" Asked Louis.

"No," Violet argued, "We'll get too distracted and chase away all the food."

"Geez, Vi, live a little." Louis laughed.

Clementine agreed. After all they'd been through...

That could be nice. They hadn't played a game in a while. They could use the distraction.

"Who goes first?" Piped AJ.

"How about you, buddy? Ask me." Said Louis.

"Okay...truth or dare, Louis?" AJ played with his gun.

Louis flashed Clem a smirk, "Dare."

AJ thought for a moment. "I dare you to...lasso a walker."

(A/N: Sorry, my mind's dry and I've got nothing)

Clementine laughed, "What?"

"Lasso a walker."

"Buddy I don't thi—"

"It's fine. I've been wanting to show off my inner cowboy skills." Louis grinned.

God, he was adorable. She just w—nope. Not the time for this.

Louis grabbed a rope from Violet's bag and stalked towards a walker.

"Don't get bit!" Clem called out.

Louis looked back, probably a joke on his tongue. His eyes wandered towards her leg—or lack of one—thought better off it and stalked away.

AJ sat down in a nearby tree, Violet muttered to herself about how much time they were wasting, and Clem leaned against a tree, looking to relive the pain. Phantom pain, Ruby had called it. It was weird. Her leg hurt—but it wasn't even there.

Clem looked around the small clearing. It was the same place AJ had gotten shot. She'd been there a couple times since they expanded the "Safe Zone".

After a couple of minutes, Violet came over to stand by Clementine.

"What's taking him so long?" She tried, her eyes downcast, "It's only one walker."

Clementine gulped as thoughts of the oncoming herd crossed her mind.

Violet noticed the falter in spirit and tried to make up for it. "I...uh...no-not like that." She stuttered.

Clementine hummed in response. Violet didn't know what to do for a second, so she decided just to talk.

"You know, I've never seen Louis fall so hard for someone before." She murmured.

Instead of Clementine calming down and thinking of Louis and other things, Violet seemed to have put her even more on edge. Shit, Violet was good at this stuff.

"There were other ones?" Clementine said after a moment.

Oh! So that's what this was about. Was Clem jealous? Almost as if she could read her mind, Clementine shook her head.

"I'm not jealous or anything," she added quickly, "just wondering."

Oh. OH. OHHHH.

"He's had some crushes here and there. Nothing serious." Said Violet, trying not think about Sophie.

Clementine nodded slowly, still thinking of Louis. But now Violet was on a roll or something.

"He liked a couple girls here and there—they never liked him back," she laughed.

Clementine raised an eyebrow. Damn, this girl was hard to please. Can't she just accept the fact that Louis is madly in love with her? Violet saw the way that the looked at each other. It was sweet, but it made her miss Minnie. The old Minnie.

"There was this one girl—Sophie—she had a major crush on him. Louis was always chasing girls for fun. He knew he'd be rejected and after a while it just became a huge inside joke for us. But he never liked Sophie back. I guess she just wasn't for him."

Clementine felt a hint of recognition at the name but pushed it out of her mind.

"Then you came along and...well, that's the story of Louis's pathetic love life."

This urged a laugh out of Clementine, startling AJ, who was toying with his gun again.

"So, what about you? Any guys before Louis?"

Clem thought for a moment. "Well, there was this one guy—Gabe. Kind of bratty. But he'd been through a lot, I guess. His sister and dad were shot. I'm pretty sure he liked me. I left to find AJ soon after."

"Wow," Said Violet, "You talk about like...I don't know...like you're used to it."

Used to what? Death? People liking her? She didn't know so she just nodded.

"How's your leg?" Violet asked, all of a sudden.

"I'm fine as I can be. My left leg? No idea what happened to it." She joked.

Violet turned red. "I uh didn't mean it in that way." She stuttered.

They stayed in silence until AJ came over, head hanging.

"Why is he taking so long?" AJ asked, his eyes guilty.

"I don't know, Goofball. He'll come back soon." Violet could sense the unease in Clementine's voice. It was only one walker that he was supposed to lasso.

"What if he doesn't come back? What he gets bit and turns all because of that stupid dare I gave him?!" AJ's voice was rising a little.

"Louis can take of himself." Violet added gently.

AJ was yelling now. "Clem could take care of herself! Now look what happened to her! She can barely survive!" He cried.

Ouch. Across the line, AJ. Below the belt. BELOW THE NONEXISTENT LEG!

Violet cast AJ a quick warning look. Clementine looked down, her suspicions confirmed. She saw the stub where her leg was supposed to be.

"Plus, scars are way cooler than stubs." said Luke.

If only he could see me now.

"I-I'm sorry Clem. I didn't mean it." Stuttered AJ.

"It's fine, Goofball." Whispered Clem.

She knew AJ didn't mean it that way, he was just telling the truth.

"Guys!" Louis ran thriugh a bush.

"Louis!" AJ ran through the clearing to hug him.

Louis was panting and covered in blood. Clementine hobbled over to him.

"What happened?" She asked, her joking demeanor from a moment ago gone.

Louis let out a harsh breath and put his hands on his knees and finished catching his breath.

"Walkers. Not even a herd." He panted.

Okay...that sounded normal enough. Right?

"Came out of nowhere. I hid. Then, someone sort of portal opened."

What? Oh god, he was delusional.

Violet checked him for bites. He was fine. He was only covered in walker blood.

"Let check it out." Murmured Clem.

"Are you crazy?!" Asked Violet, "We'll get killed."

"Louis said there weren't many walkers, plus judging by the blood on Chairles he probably killed most of them. Whatever Louis is freaking out about is important. It's probably not a magic portal—but it's worth checking out." There was an authoritative tone Clementine's voice that made Violet quiet.

Instead, she turned around to figure out what the fuck what going on with Louis.

"Louis what happened out there?"

He didn't answer her. He only mumbled something about it being impossible.

"Shhh. Calm down Louis." Clementine embraced him until he calmed down.

She pulled away.

"Now, let's go figure out what the hell a portal is."


End file.
